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morpen-palmer
Reviews
Siege at Red River (1954)
Strangely captivating movie
I was not really concentrating on this film (on Film4), as I was reading the Sunday newspaper. However, I found my attention being more and more drawn to a plot that seemed to get more believable as it progressed. Characters were developed to the point where strangeness of behaviour became them. The lack of outright violence was a huge plus in such a story, that might easily have descended into a straight-forward gunfight. Period settings overcame obvious rigours of budget to a degree of acceptability. Though all aspects - dialogue, scenery, plot etc. - all fell short at some point, the overall effect was of a well-constructed and written movie into which a great deal of thoughtful direction had been lavished.
Contagion (2002)
Flawed
The quality of direction, acting and script made a possibly worthwhile plot into a disastrous movie. The BBC in their wisdom gave it a re-run tonight and I can't think why. It is not worth even one star. There were glaring continuity errors including (in a different sense)the fact that the previously annoyingly gabby punk kid didn't say a word during all the time he was being held loosely captive by the baddie. She (the baddie)would actually have made a great Rosa Klebb in a Bond movie, but in this film had to cope with bad lines and execrable scenes. She was so quick to plunge the needle into so many of her later victims yet she took so long in her attempt on the heroine that the lift doors open. There was a glaring continuity error with the President's tie. All-in-all not a movie worth the candle.